Italy's post-election scenarios

World

Monday 5 March 2018 - 10:02am

A woman casts her ballot on March 4, 2018 at a polling station in Rome.
Photo: Tiziana Fabi / AFP

ROME - Italy's election appears to leave a hung parliament in which no single party or coalition commands an overall majority according to projections based on preliminary results, leaving few options for any new government.

The prospect of a grand coalition between Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy) party and the ruling centre-left Democratic Party against the surging populists and far-right appears no longer feasible.

According to the latest projections, the two parties together would hold 355 seats in the 630-seat lower house of parliament and 168 seats in the 315-seat upper house.

Both parties are heavily eurosceptic and League leader Matteo Salvini has been accused of stirring up racial tensions. A tie-up could cause shockwaves around Europe.

Right-wing coalition

Preliminary results make this remote as the coalition is predicted to win only 37 percent of the vote, including 18 percent for the League and 14 percent for Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy) party.

The final result of the vote in terms of seats is hard to predict, however, as Italy is using a new electoral law for the first time that combines proportional representation with a first-past-the-post system.